About ready to give up on 300blk...

[TAZ]

Even with a reloading set up, I've put the 300BLK in the neat but useless category for me. I'm not a wildcatter so anything I own has to have a commercial supply available. At this time 300BLK is like unicorn dust. I'd love to see Remington and others pick up the mfg pace but IMO they won't until they catch up on "regular"caliber supply. We have been saying the whole XYZ is expanding like for a while now with no realization. Given the idiotic political climate people may be hesitant to invest capital into expansion. The irrational demand we saw over the last 10 months is not permanent.

[Xsail]

Yep, the .300 blk is my only "odd ball" in my safe...Was mostly wanting only common ammo. Being a hand loader, .30 bullets being so common with so many choices, and a couple hundred pounds of .223 brass laying around to make the .300 brass, I made an exception....O.L.

[mbogo]

I'm not a wildcatter so anything I own has to have a commercial supply available.

Wal-Mart here carries .300 BLK subsonics (Remington).

mbogo

[mkmckinley]

Some of us have reloading kit.

300 just begs to be reloaded. With a little luck and some effort, it can be done very, very cheaply.

Any chance you could let us in on your formula for el cheapo BLK practice reloads? I'm just getting into the caliber myself.

[Suwannee Tim]

Any chance you could let us in on your formula for el cheapo BLK practice reloads? I'm just getting into the caliber myself.

My method: The tools are not cheap but I already had most of them and the additional cost for 300 AAC was maybe $300: On a Dillon 650 I have a decap die and a Dillon power trimmer, I can make 500 cases an hour from 5.56mm. These do have to be deburred and primer pocket swaged which I do on lunch break at work. I load them on the Dillon 650 again running about 500 rounds a hour with 9 grains of H110 / Win 296 and a Sierra 220 grain round nose bullet. Cost, 2/5 hour per hundred, powder, 700 rounds per pound about $4 per hundred, primers $4 per hundred, bullets, bullets, 220 grain Sierra round nose, $30 per hundred, about $15 cheaper than the 220 MKHP, about $38 per hundred not including the value of the 5.56 mm used to make the 300 brass. It is less work the next time around when I don't need to trim the brass.

[uffdaphil]

I still pine for those 8-9" uppers, but am not optimistic about the Blackout situation improving anytime soon.

But the silver lining is that i was driven to reconsider the commie calibers. Now I have 6-7k of shooting security for peanuts compared to Blackout and a new-found appreciation for AKs.. The Yugo M92 with coned booster will compare well with the AAC/URX in a beauty contest too. (We needn't compare accuracy.)

[rsilvers]

The subsonic is taken care of. There are good prices on it at Walmart, and the supply and demand will eventually level out:



Supersonic UMC is being retooled to improve it. While it is a pain to wait for it to be re-released, I am pretty excited about how it is coming out. Eventually this will all be a bad dream in the past. Also it is fantastic that there is so much govt interest which will eventually ensure more production, but in the short term, they are getting first dibs and that is not helping supply.

The commitment is there - Remington released new Hog Hammer ammo:



And Barnes announced a new 120 grain black tip:



But this is not unique to 300 BLK - my friend emailed me saying that he could not find *any* 9mm, 45, or 40, and was limited to a few boxes of 223. In my state, mail order ammo is banned, so he is at the mercy of the local stores.

[mic2377]

For practice SUB loads, I run basically any 190-220 gr bullet I can get. 190 Noslers, 210 and 220 SMK's, 208 Hornady's, or 200 gr Speers have all worked just fine. Standard powder charge is between 10.3 and 10.8 gr of 1680. I have also used H110, H4198, RL7, and Lil'gun with acceptable results although 1680 is the most reliable.

For supers, any 110-150 gr spitzer bullet works 100% in my rifle as long as you get the right OAL. Good powders include H110, Win 296, Lil'gun, Alliant 300-MP, or Accurate 1680. The cartridge is not overly finicky and all of these will go bang and deliver acceptable accuracy.

I actually can't remember if I have actually fired any factory ammo in my 300. It has all been reloaded + converted brass. Even at the prices posted above, factory 300BLK ammo is WAYYY too expensive, especially since the tooling can't be THAT much different from 223...

[Kokopelli]

Get on the email list at midway".

[rsilvers]

Brownell's has them in stock.